So, I’ve been writing this blog post for over a week now.
It all started when I awoke to snow falling outside my window on Friday, December 8th. The night before, the weatherman said we were to get around 2 inches of snow. But when I woke up the next morning, there was already a light dusting on the ground and the snow was falling rather quickly.
We’ve had a few snowy days over the past several years, but this time, it was different.
Over the next 24 hours the snow continued to fall. Most people reported anywhere from 6-12 inches of snow, but the highest accumulation was at Mt. Mitchell with 25 inches!
**(Now, I know some of my friends live in places that are accustomed to having this much snow, if not more, practically all the time. Bear with us North Carolinians. This kind of snow doesn’t happen often anymore.)
In my opinion, there are only a handful of reasons that we are given the season of winter: hot chocolate, Christmas caroling, and SNOW.
To me, there is no purpose for the cold weather when snow is not involved.
The snow eventually slowed down the following Saturday just in time to make the drive up Old Fort Mountain to attend the celebration of life service for a dear 23 year old whom I had known from my softball days in The Valley.
As we drove up the mountain and saw the snow covering the valley below, I couldn’t help but think of the beauty that comes with a good snow. In this wintry, cold season that we are in, as the leaves have all fell and only the ragged, rough tree is left behind, the snow made things a little more beautiful.
That’s when I had this idea about writing a blog post called “When the Snow Melts.” And let me tell you, I was jazzed about this idea.
As I thought about how beautiful the snow was and how beautiful the Lord’s comfort and goodness are, I wanted to compare the two to each other. In many ways, the Lord’s comfort and goodness are like the snow.
Just as the weatherman had predicted only 2 inches of snow and we received even more, the Lord’s comfort and goodness are the same. He gives us immeasurably more than we expect to receive because He is so much more than what we limit Him to.
But, I really wanted to look at the question: what do we do when His comfort and goodness aren’t enough? When the snow melts, and we are stuck with the ugly winter lacking in beauty, what do we do?
I only thought that’s what I was going to write about.
Fast forward to Sunday and you’ll find my dad and I outside with my 6-year-old cousin. I was amazed at how much snow still remained. It just hadn’t melted. There was still enough to have a decent snow ball fight, and believe me, we had one. (You can check out some snow footage in the video at the bottom of this blog.)
I sat down that evening again to write this post about “When the Snow Melts,” but I couldn’t bring myself to write it because the snow just hadn’t melted and I still hadn’t figured out what the Lord was teaching me in this.
There we were, again, on Wednesday, driving to Tennessee. We were maybe 20 minutes into the trip and there were parts of our drive that had not yet been touched by the sun since the snow had fell almost a week before. It was still a winter wonderland. Fields of snow had been left behind.
Again, I couldn’t write this post yet because the snow had not melted. What was the Lord teaching me in this?
I was not to write a post about what you do when His comfort runs out. Nor was I supposed to write a post about what you do when His goodness isn’t enough.
Unlike the snow, His grace and His comfort and His goodness don’t go away. They don’t run out. Ever.
In the midst of a wintry season, in the midst of a grief filled funeral, in the midst of all the bad things that could potentially go wrong, He never stops comforting us and He never loses His goodness.
While all heck is breaking loose, He remains steadfast.
Sometimes, His goodness may not be as easy to see as a snow covered yard. But that doesn’t mean that He isn’t still good.
Our circumstances may change, but His characteristics don’t.
He is good. He is faithful. In every season.
“But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.” Psalm 73:28 NASB
-B
